I’m tired of being played every time I buy an album. I pre-order or reserve just about any album I want to hear so that I can get it on release day. This used to be cool, my album would arrive on or before its official release and the publisher would have me pay full price for the album. No arguments here. Recently, however, in the past few years I’ve been getting
What finally broke my cool was the new Luomo album, Plus. You see, I paid a tenner for it on release and was happy with my new, shiny, physical disc. However, one week after I bought it, they releases a Poland only disc with the ‘bonus’ track ‘Spy’. So, including delivery, that was another £15.
That’s me up to £25 for one album. Twenty-five hard-worked-for pounds.
But wait for it, then there is another iTunes only version, with three bonus tracks, and all the instrumentals. That’s another £8, alongside the embarrassment and indignity of having to install iTunes.
I have paid what amounts to £33 for one album now. So here is a copy of it, for everyone – all the bonus tracks, and all the instrumentals. I’ve also included the bonus tracks from:
The Present Lover
Present Lover (Remix – Bonus Version),
Convivial
Diamond Skull (Bonus Track),
Plus
Arrest (Bonus Track),
Temptation (Bonus Track),
Meet Me (Bonus Track),
and all instrumentals
What really pissed me off, is the fact that Diamond Skull is about the only track on Convivial that I actually enjoy – and it’s not even on the release I paid for!
You’ll find the links at the bottom of this post. However, please remember that this isn’t going to turn into some mp3 posting blog, trying to rip off artists, but I can’t really stand back and watch this happen to anyone else. Bonus tracks should either appear on EVERY copy of the record, or none at all.
The instrumental of Happy Strong, BTW, OMG!
Plus Bonus Tracks and Instrumentals
The Present Lover Bonus Track
Convivial Bonus Track
Update: I wrote this when I was pretty angry and lost focus somewhat. Really the main reason for my rant here is that most of these bonus tracks are ‘digital‘ only, so I’ll never be able to have a physical copy of them. I know a lot of people don’t care about this, but I do. I want a library I can refer to, something with tangible artwork, something I can sit down and share with my kids, as my dad did with me. I don’t want to end up a 40-year-old man explaining to my kids that “Daddy used to have a lot of cool music on his HDD, but I lost it / can’t play it now / deleted it”.
I think we’ve maybe liberated music to the point where it’s no longer valuable, no longer appreciated, and that makes me incredibly sad.
In the early 90’s I thought that I would love the day when I could download any track I wanted to at the click of a button, but all it does is diminish my appreciation of it.
I still remember having to hunt high and low for a copy of Ranta in Glasgow, the excitement of finding it. Or stumbling upon a weird, nameless 12″ single. Now I can’t tell you the last time I even visited a record shop.